They said it couldn’t be done by rookies. We didn’t think we could do it. We were told in sarcastic tones, “Good luck.”
This journey, doing that crazy thing we set out to do, build a house, mostly by ourselves has been hard. It’s not just been hard, it’s been overwhelming, exhilarating, frustrating, and at times has felt impossible. This last weekend was no exception.
Jer and I headed out early Friday morning as usual. We took our old truck hoping it would have enough power to bring our trailer down at the end of the weekend. Less than halfway into our journey the truck began to lose power. It’s done this before. Sometimes it runs great and other times it struggles. Jer and I debated whether to continue or head home and switch cars, which meant we wouldn’t be bringing the trailer back like planned.
In the end, we headed home and switched cars, more than doubling our travel time. Ugh! Some how at the end of the day, it was okay. We got started on that new impossible task…building the stair and loft railing. While Jer did his research, those who sell the supplies were no help at all. By the end of our first and short day, we had four feet of railing done. I actually felt good about it.
Even though it took us a while to figure it out, I knew the next day would be a lot easier. The next morning the eighteen feet of loft railing went much faster. Now we had the angle cuts to do. We only made it about halfway down the first stretch of stairs that day… with much debate, I have to admit. It was pretty stressful but turned out good.
Sunday was our day to finish. We had just got our electrical inspection finalized and needed the railing to call in our final inspection for occupancy, which doesn’t mean we have everything done but that everything is working. Needless to say, the pressure was on. The last set of angled railing was one degree different from the other. You wouldn’t think it would be a big deal, but Jer and I had much debate again about how it should be done.
By days end, everything we set out to do that weekend, minus pulling the trailer back to our temporary living arrangement, was completed. Jer and I both had the opportunity to forgive each other. But we are the team.
Hoorah! To overcoming what feels like impossible obstacles. We are one step closer.
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